Hockey is Canada’s Sport!
And mining plays a big role in making the sport possible.
Hockey sticks, skates and nets are all made of materials mined in Canada.
The most popular hockey sticks are one-piece composite sticks — typically of graphite, though unique materials such as Kevlar and titanium are also used, and occasionally coatings such as nickel cobalt are applied for added strength.
Blades on hockey skates are generally made of tempered steel and coated with a high-quality chrome. Some blade manufacturers may add titanium to the metal.
Graphite, titanium, steel, chrome, nickel and cobalt are all mined in Canada. In fact, Nickel was first discovered in Canada in 1883, and began being mined in the 1890s.
Today, Canada is one of the world’s five top five nickel-producing countries.